While Facebook has yet to reveal official unit sales figures for Oculus Quest 2, various data points the company has offered, along with data from developers, has allowed us to hone in on a reasonable estimate. Compared to PSVR, the best selling VR headset to date, Quest 2 may be selling three times as fast.

Thanks to PlayStation VR’s leading sales position, Sony has confidently offered up official unit sales figures over the years while other headset makers have opted not to. The last data point the company shared is that PSVR reached 5 million unit sales as of January 1st, 2020. Here’s a look at the figures over time:

Interestingly, both PlayStation VR and Quest 2 were both released on October 13th (2016 and 2020, respectively), which gives us a very comparable timeline because it eliminates the variable of seasonal sales differences; if we could figure out the number of Quest 2 units sold so far, we’d be able to get a pretty good idea of how it stacks up against the sales rate of PSVR.

While Oculus hasn’t offered up official sales figures for Quest 2 yet, two data points can help us reach a reasonable estimate.

First, during the company’s Q4 2020 earnings call, Facebook said that Quest 2 was a major driver behind the $885 million in Q4 non-advertising revenue (which includes the company’s hardware products Oculus and Portal). With some conservative assumptions, we previously estimated this would yield around 1 million Quest 2 units sold in Q4, 2020.

Second, the developers of Rec Room, using their own internal data, estimated 2–3 million Quest 2 units sold in Q4, 2020.

SEE ALSO
Sony to Discontinue Free PSVR Camera Adapter for PlayStation 5 This Month

We’re now another quarter (three months) beyond those estimates, which ranged between 1–3 million units. While more Quest 2 units have surely sold since then, sales in the first quarter of the year are unlikely to have kept the same pace considering that Q4 tends to be the most active thanks to the holiday shopping season.

With that in mind, we can split the difference between the estimates (2 million), and, for the sake of being conservative, assume that Q1, 2021 saw only 25% of the sales of Q4, 2020, leaving us with an estimate of 2,500,000 Quest 2 units sold through Q1, 2021.

So how does that line up with PSVR’s known unit sales? Here’s a look:

Looking at the same data by ‘time to milestone’ gives another tangible way of comparing the two:

Unit Milestone 1,000,000 2,000,000 2,500,000
Quest 2 (days to reach) 45 90 180
PSVR (days to reach) 137 420 549
Quest 2 sales rate relative to PSVR 3x 4.7x 3.1x

That puts the overall estimated rate of Quest 2 sales at a little more than three times the rate of PSVR when aligning launch timelines.

This all tracks with Facebook’s claim that Quest 2 has outsold all prior Oculus headsets combined, and the data showing that Quest 2 has even become the most popular VR headset on Steam.

– – — – –

To be clear, this isn’t an assessment of which product is better; in fact this is what we’d expect to find—that in the four and a half years since the launch of PSVR, VR in general has become more popular, hardware has improved, prices have fallen, and content has gotten better, paving the way for newer headsets to be more successful and widespread.

That said, we’re looking forward to seeing how Sony’s PSVR 2 will fare with all the advancements that have been made since the original, and how it will compete with Oculus’ Quest line.

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Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • JT

    Look Ma no hands. Who gives an F!

  • Matthew Lake

    All the data available hinted that Quest 2 is selling much faster that PSVR. Whether it numbers from Valve, VR developers, or just doing a bit of research to look at how much interest there is in these products. And fwiw, anecdotally speaking, there has clearly been a shift in the types of people buying into VR. People are I asked to get into VR for many years (I gave up 1-2 years ago) just went and bought a Quest 2 without me even mentioning it.

    I’ve shared these before (yes, I know it can’t infer sales numbers!) to show that the “interest” in Quest is a lot more than any other VR headset to date. What’s interesting is that after the normal holiday peak, Quest 2 didn’t drop down to baseline levels like every other headset It’s maintaining near enough the same searches as when the product was launched in October.

    You can do other keyword research that includes “product name” + “store name” – and that shows pretty much the same thing as below (although there is clearly much lower search volume). Keywords with buying intent just confirm that more people are interested in buying Quest.

    In my opinion 2.5M is quite conservative. I think it’s more likely 3.5 million + (perhaps even fast closing in on 4M).

    People underestimate how successful Facebook is this time around.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b30185c8e8f9cdeeaf3eaf37f9a1a1776671723234f296a59b0daf3ad8021ea4.png

    • Matthew Lake

      How VR headsets are doing compared to the much more popular Nintendo Switch.
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2061f8ed8912432b474772fd8a11a611cd6f1bfc49715e892a7e1cf8382eb464.png

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    • Amni3D

      What’s interesting is that after the normal holiday peak, Quest 2 didn’t drop down to baseline levels like every other headset.

      To be fair, I’m not sure if that’s exclusive to the Quest 2. Covid’s demand and limited stock consistently made any vaguely relevant VR headset out of stock (including the PSVR and at some points even the Vive Cosmos).

      100% the Quest 2 is selling amazingly well, but I’m waiting on what happens after the covid arc to get interested regarding specific data.

    • Ad

      No one underestimates it. Although I think you predicted more like 8 million quests by now. Revealing the PSVR2 was a good move, more people should announce coming hardware to suppress the hype Facebook generates with its marketing and pushing devs to talk about the quest.

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  • g-man

    New thing sells faster than old thing. News at 11.

    • benz145

      This would not be the case for probably all other VR headsets released after PSVR, so yes, this is news.

  • guest

    A 100 million is piss in the bucket to a company that size! 90% of those could easily be self-purchases from their petty cash for marketing. All those users could be spoofed from the IP addresses from their flock and sent to that Quest farm in their basement. This is no April fools joke. Who are the real suckers???

  • Blaexe

    Even that estimate should be pretty conservative. If you go by the Steam survey, we can safely assume that there were at least 500k Rift sold, 800k Rift S. And I think we agree, that OG Quest sold at least 1m, probably quite a bit more. That makes 2.3m alone – plus Oculus Go, which likely has sold 1m aswell.

    I think Q2 numbers are closer to 4m by now.

    Another point is that the Oculus android app jumped over the “5 millions downloads” a few weeks ago, which obviously doesn’t include Apple users and not all Rift users.

  • Till Eulenspiegel

    Duh. PSVR came out at the time of Oculus DK2 in 2016. Do you compared a recent product with another that came out 5 years ago? Also, Sony had announced the PSVR2 so most people are waiting for that headset.

  • I think PSVR 2 will absolutely fly off the shelves is Sony prices it competitively. My expectation is that pretty much everyone who has PSVR 1 will absolutely be up for the next generation of this amazing technology.

    • Arturis Dentalis

      I hope it will, but the fact that they haven’t mentioned a wireless option makes me a bit concerned. The PS5 supports Wifi 6 so it could be doable.

    • Arno van Wingerde

      I agree… but by 2022 the Quest2 probably has solidly outsold the PSVR and people start to develop more for that. Add to that the new and shiny “Quest3” at that point and PSVR2 has its work ut out for it. Of course, they are not 1:1 exchangeable, but don’t forget that the Quest is both leaner (look mom, no cables!) and stronger when paired with a good PC.

    • mcnichoj

      Comments that didn’t age well.

  • JB1968

    Without PSVR success the VR market would be half-dead now. The Quest is just parasiting on the way created by Sony. PSVR2+PS5 power will again blow the true VR sales up with PC graphics quality AAA VR games backed by Sony. Sadly there are no big games planned for PCVR but they hopefully get some crumbs from PSVR2. Also Facebook products will remain for poor PCVR players that can’t afford Index or G2 and for VR casuals that just want to play Beat Saber on their backyard or love to being stalked by FB on their social crappy platforms.

    • Daven Bigelow

      Thanks for making me chuckle.

      • JB1968

        Cheers!

    • MosBen

      This is not a morality play or sports competition. We don’t have to choose sides or root for a team. If you like VR, then more people getting into VR is a good thing.

      • JB1968

        Sure, I don’t have any specific team chosen (have both PCVR and PSVR stuff). Just saying how things really are opposed to what all these VR news websites are trying to pretend(probably due the FB PR money).

        In current state you have these options:

        -PCVR: the bleeeding edge with all the pluses and minuses
        -PSVR: massive(in terms of VR) adoption and great software(games oriented) library, console(closed) platform
        -FBVR: cheap hardware from a company where the product is the user

        So…pick what is closer to your heart. I personally never go the FBVR way even if Quest3 would be best headset in the world and for free.

        Also you are partially right about “the more people the better”. If the future of VR will be in hands of a company such as FB no matter how shiny their gear might look then I’m realy not sure if that’s a good thing. I only hope there will be more players in the game to not let FB take the lead.

        • MosBen

          But the Quest isn’t “parasiting” anything beyond benefitting from the work done by earlier products/companies. Oculus jumpstarted the current VR trend. Sony jumped on the bandwagon with a device that wasn’t as good as its competitors, but had a good price, some good content, and an existing install base that helped it move units. Facebook recognized early on that a cheaper device, like the PSVR, would appeal to people, but lacking an existing console to build on and already having experience with working with mobile hardware made a mobile unit that wasn’t bleeding edge in terms of specs but was the right price. And yes, Facebook has some privacy issues that have led me to avoid purchasing a Quest 2, but that doesn’t make the Quest 2 a bad device, or that its success is bad for the development of VR.

          As more people spend money on VR, more developers are able to spend their time making things in VR, which helps develop the language of the medium and produce better games/experiences. And hardware developers also get more time to push the technology further.

          We can recognize that Facebook has some troubling practices without minimizing the reality that they’re bringing lots of new people to VR, which is a good thing for people who care about the continued development of the medium.

          • Arturis Dentalis

            “Oculus jumpstarted the current VR trend. Sony jumped on the bandwagon with a device that wasn’t as good as its competitors”

            That’s incorrect. Sony had started development of the PSVR back in 2010.

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_VR#History

            It’s not quite accurate to say ‘it wasn’t as good as its competitors’. Its resolution, controls and tracking solution weren’t as good as many, but it was (and still is) one of the most comfortable HMDs, has a 90-120Hz refresh rate, the SDE was far less noticeable than on other displays, and it has an OLED display with deeper blacks. If anything it’s the PS4 that held the PSVR back.

          • benz145

            It’s entirely fair to say that Oculus jump started the current trend. VR has been around for a long time (decades before Oculus). But the Oculus Kickstarter started a grassroots movement which inspired developers, investors, and companies alike. If Oculus had failed instead of being acquired by Facebook, it’s doubtful that PSVR would have launched in 2016.

            Big companies were not willing to take the risk on consumer VR when it had failed so publicly in the late ’80s / early ’90s. Oculus was able to take that risk as a startup with little to lose, and irrefutably reignited/accelerated interest in consumer VR.

          • Arturis Dentalis

            When I said ‘that’s incorrect’ I was referring to the statement that Sony just jumped on the bandwagon when they actually had an early interest in the tech.

            “It’s entirely fair to say that Oculus jump started the current trend.”

            I think it’s more accurate to say Oculus helped significantly to start the current trend, but I wouldn’t say it was solely responsible (and I doubt VR would’ve petered out if Oculus didn’t give it a go).
            Let’s not forget that PSVR was a good bit cheaper than the Rift, needed a far less beefy/expensive machine to power it, and had a far bigger potential playerbase. It’s been pretty popular :)!

            “If Oculus had failed instead of being acquired by Facebook, it’s doubtful that PSVR would have launched in 2016.”

            I don’t think you’re saying that the only possible fate for Oculus was failure if FB didn’t buy them, but if you are, then I’d disagree.
            As for not launching in 2016, that’s unknowable. They did launch it in 2016 with a respectable number of games and no major hiccups.

            “Big companies were not willing to take the risk on consumer VR”

            Sony were developing the PSVR for quite some time though, and they have taken risks before (PS1, PS3, the PS Vita).
            I think most of us would agree that when a person tries modern VR for the first time, there’s a good chance they’ll immediately be smitten or at least see the potential for it (even with the early HMDs). That sounds like what happened with Shuhei Yoshida.

            https://www.vrfocus.com/2014/12/project-morpheus-started-grassroots-activity-following-ps-moves-release/

          • Blaexe

            Sony wasn’t “developing PSVR” per se – they were experimenting with the tech, similar to Valve. Facebook buying Oculus was the signal to take this serious and to actually develop a product for end users. I think the book “History of the future” brings this out nicely.

            Project Morpheus was shown almost at the exact time as Facebook buying Oculus and that’s not a coincidence.

          • kool

            I think oculus did give don’t the balls to jump into the game and we all benefitted from the timing nobody owns vr let’s just be happy it happened.

          • JB1968

            Yes, forgot to mention that as well. Sony was ‘first’ :-) (at least in the new era of VR)

          • JB1968

            Fair enough, maybe the ‘parasiting’ was not the right wording :-) I also agree the Quest is good hardware (for such price) but unfortunately produced by a really bad company. Maybe I’m too paranoic but I can’t resist to think how the VR landscape would look if Facebook takes over the majority of the market.

          • MosBen

            No, I think that your hesitance is legitimate. I had an original Rift CV1, and still have a Quest 1, but I’m not going to buy a Quest 2 because of the Facebook integration. That’s a legitimate concern. That said, even though I’m not personally going to buy one, as someone that is a fan of VR and wants it to continue to improve and expand, the fact that the Quest 2 is selling lots of units, bringing more people into VR, and helping VR developers make money and continue to develop the medium is a good thing.

        • benz145

          We don’t accept money for sponsored content (you wouldn’t believe how often we’re approached for this). Ad decisions are made completely separately from people who write editorial content (by design).

          So there’s no pretending here, we’re just assessing and sharing the available data.

          • JB1968

            Thanks for clarification. Sometimes I just can’t resist to think about that as some articles here are really written in such mood. But it’s just my subjective feeling of course. For example in this article the only ‘hard’ data are comming from Sony (well I know someone will post I’m biased again but it’s just a fact), the rest is just some foggy numbers mixed with speculation. Maybe you should try to pound on the other VR parties to reveal real numbers instead if Zuckerberg is so positive talking.

        • kool

          I’m just happy vr is finally doing numbers. The psvr helped when vr was struggling, the quest 2 picked up the baton and ran with it. We now have the hope of a sustainable vr future. I’m just waiting to see if I get a quest 3 or psvr 2. We winning either way enjoy!

        • Arno van Wingerde

          Hm, I do not completely agree. i do not think that the Quest2 has cheap hardware, as reported in various comapritive reviews. Rather, it is sponsored by FB for reasons that have nothing to do with generosity, but nevertheless make the product sold at an incredible price. Likewise, Sony makes money on the games, so the PS5 and PSVR is sponsored as well, but I think to a lesser degree.
          Moreover, for VR gamers wanting more power, the option to connect it to a game rig that can already outpace the PS5 today, albeit at a much higher price point. Come 2021, the best game rigs will be able to run rings around it in 2022 and beyond, might make it a better option for many, even when the PSVR2 comes out. This effect may be countered by better controls and the PS5 being more uniform than PCs – that’s the old OC vs. console game in VR.

    • HindsiteGenius

      With PC component prices mainly GPU’s being what they are, Headsets priced above $500 are simply untenable if VR is to grow as a platform. If it wasn’t for Quest 2 VR would be currently stagnant with no growth or movement. GPU prices will most likely be were they are for the next couple of years from what most media outlets are saying. Therefore standalone with the option of PCVR makes the most sense. Also you cannot predict the absolute success or failure of an unreleased product such as PSVR2, none of us can. You seem to have a sort of bias.

      The future is going to be standalone eventually as these are experimental XR platforms for the future in which everyone will have some sort of device.

      • JB1968

        Well, without Quest(s) the growth would be only a bit slower because most of the people that’ve bought Quest would simply got PSVR instead. (check the internet for ‘should I buy Quest or PSVR’ questions).

        The new wave of VR hype was inevitable once the word has been spread from the sever milions of ealry VR adopters and with the support of more and more developers. So I don’t think without Quest we would be doomed.

        And yes, you are right, I can’t predict the success of PSVR2. It’s just my personal guess based on the success of the previous model and confidence that Sony is not a beginner in marketing. Of course there is still a chance they completely screw the product but I would say the chance is comparable to the possibility if they screwed PS5 model.

        Good point the future will be standalone. But again, unless there is any really big breakthrough in the technology the standalone hw will be always less performant than tethered solution so while the standalone users will be happy to play today’s AAA games in VR in 10 years the ‘tethered’ crowd won’t be really interested in such tech. Maybe to buy cheap entertainment for kids. I can imagine some sort of cheap AR/XR goggles will replace current cellphones at that point though.

  • Ad

    I mean, Q2 launched with a full library it took from both PSVR and PCVR even before the Q1. We’ll see with the PSVR2, between the high quality and better market on one hand and the lower install base and more console competition compared to the 2016 PS4.

  • Nothing to see here

    Perhaps it is because the PSVR is a last generation headset which is barely supported on the current generation PS5. Here are some reasons not to buy one.
    There is a PSVR2 on the way and Sony has even shown the new controllers.
    The PSVR requires that you play only PS4 games on the PS5.
    You have to own and use a PS4 controller on your PS5 to play PSVR games.
    You have to own and use a PS4 camera on your PS5 (with a special adapter you cannot buy at any store and may or may not be included with the PSVR).
    The PS5 camera cannot be used with PSVR.
    Most PS4 PSVR games have not been updated to support the extra graphics power of the PS5.
    One that is, No Man’s Sky, can only transfer data to the PS5 but not back to PS4 again so if you have played on the PS5 you have lost all those game saves if you want to play using PSVR.
    I am sure there are dozens of other reasons not to buy a PSVR headset right now. I am amazed they are selling at all.

    • Blaexe

      This article is not comparing the Quest 2 to PSVR “right now” though. It’s comparing Quest 2 launch window to PSVR launch window.

      • Nothing to see here

        The headline reads as follows:
        “Quest 2 May Be Selling Thrice as Fast as the Best Selling VR Headset, PSVR”
        This is what I commented on.
        FD: I own and love both of them.

        • benz145

          Perhaps you should read the article attached to the headline rather than skipping it and heading straight for the comments.

          • Nothing to see here

            Hi, welcome to the Internet.

      • Yeah but the PSVR was blurry, tracking was bad, people were more concerned about motion sickness and there weren’t any system seller games like Beat Saber at a time it came out. Let’s see how PSVR2 sells with all of these problems solved from the get go. They just need to fix the lack of PS5 stock first. Still haven’t been able to buy the damn console.

  • sfmike

    I would hope a stand alone VR headset with good tracking would outsell a old PlayStation 4 addon headset with really poor tracking, if not VR is certainly doomed.

    • Arno van Wingerde

      But then again, no other VR set did in the years between PSVR and Quest2.

  • Alexisms

    Quest 2 May Be Selling Thrice as Fast missus oh no don’t missus! Good to see the spirit of Frankie Howerd alive and well :-)

  • Shaun

    Prior to this, the best hint I could find regarding Q2 sales was Sidequest’s traffic increasing 5x. This is another good data point. Beat saber must be raking it in :D

    • They sure are. Even on the PSVR it’s the best selling VR game every month since it launched.

  • Als89

    PSVR didn’t have a pandemic to boost sales from people who were stuck inside and wanted to either escape from the bleakness of 2020 or “hang out” with their friends in vrchat or something. Not really comparable.

    • Arno van Wingerde

      Good point, i was thinking along the same lines… But whatever the reason, if the logic above is sound, the Quest sold 3 times faster. Sure, lots of other stuff sells more too… but three times faster? And the other result is that Quest will have a much larger user base before the PSVR2 comes out, which by itself is a point of strength, see PS vs. XBox.

  • ShaneMcGrath

    Would sell even better if they removed Facebook login!